Onstage at Bfi Southbank This Month
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ONSTAGE AT BFI SOUTHBANK THIS MONTH DIRECTOR CLAIRE DENIS (HIGH LIFE), DIRECTOR NICK BROOMFIELD (BIGGIE & TUPAC, WHITNEY: CAN I BE ME), DIRECTOR STANLEY KWAN (FIRST NIGHT NERVES, ROUGE), BROADCASTERS MARK KERMODE AND EDITH BOWMAN, DIRECTOR DOMINGA SOTOMAYOR CASTILLO (TOO LATE TO DIE YOUNG, THURSDAY TILL SUNDAY) Film previews and premieres: VOX LUX (Brady Corbet, 2018), FIRST NIGHT NERVES (Stanley Kwan, 2018), IN CHARACTER (Dong Xueying, 2018), TRACEY (Jun Li, 2018), BEATS (Brian Welsh, 2018), HERO – INSPIRED BY THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE & TIMES OF MR. ULRIC CROSS (Frances-Anne Solomon, 2018), SUPPORT THE GIRLS (Andrew Bujalski, 2018), TOO LATE TO DIE YOUNG TARDE PARA MORIR JOVEN (Dominga Sotomayor Castillo, 2018) DVD/BLU-RAY LAUNCHES: MOVING MILLIONS: BRITISH TRANSPORT FILMS BLU-RAY LAUNCH New and Re-Releases: MABOROSI MABOROSI NO HIKARI (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 1995), THE BLUE ANGEL DER BLAUE ENGEL (Josef von Sternberg, 1930), HIGH LIFE (Claire Denis, 2018), DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (Stanley Kubrick, 1963) Tuesday 19 March 2019, London. BFI Southbank will mark the centenary of the Weimar Republic with a major two-month season, BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS: WEIMAR CINEMA 1919-1933, running throughout May and June and showcasing the extraordinary diversity of styles and genres in Weimar cinema. Part one of the season will showcase the extraordinary diversity of styles and genres in Weimar cinema, which conjured extraordinary visions: from dystopian cities and Alpine adventures to depraved nightclubs. There will be examples of genres audiences may expect, such as dystopian sci-fi Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927) and haunted horror Nosferatu (FW Murnau, 1922), but also more surprising styles of filmmaking, with gender-bending farces and sparkling musicals such as I Don't Want to Be a Man (Ernst Lubitsch, 1918), Heaven on Earth (Reinhold Schünzel, Alfred Schirokauer, 1927) and A Blonde Dream (Paul Martin, 1932) also being a vital part of the story of Weimar cinema. On Thursday 9 May we will welcome legendary director CLAIRE DENIS to the BFI Southbank stage for a special In Conversation event, to discuss her work so far, her move into English-language filmmaking, and the state of French and European cinema today. Following this event there will be a preview, followed by a Q&A with Denis, of her new film backed by the BFI Film Fund, High Life (2018) starring Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche, which will also go on to play on extended run from Friday 10 May. These special events are a curtain raiser for a dedicated month-long CLAIRE DENIS season taking place at BFI Southbank in June, with full details to be announced soon. May will also see the culmination of BFI Southbank’s definitive KUBRICK season; part two of the season will feature screenings (on celluloid where possible) of iconic films including 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Full Metal Jacket (1998), and Paths of Glory (1975). Running alongside the season will be a series of ‘Kubrickian’ films, featuring work by directors such as Christopher Nolan, Lynne Ramsay, Jonathan Glazer and Paul Thomas Anderson. OF FLESH AND BLOOD: THE CINEMA OF HIROKAZU KORE-EDA will also conclude in May with screenings of recent works such as Our Little Sister (2015), The Third Murder (2017) and Shoplifters (2018), which have cemented Kore- eda’s status as a master chronicler of the modern Japanese family and 21st-century Japanese society. There will also be screenings of the BFI re-release of his debut feature Maborosi (1995), which also features on a new 4-disc box set featuring UK blu-ray premieres of Maborosi, After Life, Nobody Knows and Still Walking, released by the BFI on Monday 15 July. From Friday 10 May – Sunday 12 May, BFI Southbank will host The Victorian Film Weekender, a weekend of events, previews, screenings and discussions celebrating 200 years since the birth of Queen Victoria (born 24 May 1819). This will include a reprise of the BFI London Film Festival Archive Gala The Great Victoria Moving Picture Show, hosted by BFI Silent Film Curator Bryony Dixon, which played to a sold out crowd at LFF 2018. The weekend coincides with the launch of the BFI National Archive’s entire collection of British Victorian film (1895-1901) on BFI Player; all newly digitised from the best quality source materials. This vast collection of more than 500 films will be available to watch alongside existing Victorian work by Mitchell and Kenyon; this full collection of well over 700 films shows the incredible range and inventiveness of the dynamic and youthful pioneers of moving pictures in Britain. In these first five years, our Victorian filmmakers put the new medium through its paces, experimenting with news, animation, drama and fantasy, comedy - even colour and sound - all forms that would emerge in moving image media to come; cinema, television and online platforms. Crucially, they recorded the world of the late Victorians themselves, creating an immediacy and connection with the period that is entirely different the stiff, buttoned-up, austere figures of Victorian photographs. Full details of the Victorian Film Weekender and the Victorian Film Collection on BFI Player will be announced soon. Also in May, BFI Southbank will welcome renowned documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield for a series of events looking at his work, from Kurt & Courtney (1998) and Soldier Girls (1981) to Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1992) and Whitney: Can I Be Me (2017). Events with include Nick Broomfield in Conversation followed by a screening of Behind the Rent Strike (1974), screenings of The Leader, His Driver and The Driver’s Wife (1991) and Biggie & Tupac (2002), both introduced by Broomfield, and a special BFI Future Film Labs documentary masterclass led by the director for young filmmakers aged 16-25. The BFI Southbank events programme in May features a previews of hotly anticipated films such as Brady Corbet’s Vox Lux (2018) starring Natalie Portman, LFF 2018 hit Support the Girls (Andrew Bujalski, 2018), Brian Welsh’s nostalgic look at 90s rave culture Beats (2018) and Chilean coming-of-age story Too Late to Die Young (Dominga Sotomayor Castillo, 2018). The screening of Too Late to Die Young will be followed by a Q&A with director Dominga Sotomayor Castillo, who will also appear onstage following a special screening of his feature-length debut Thursday Till Sunday (2012). BFI Southbank’s regular AFRICAN ODYSSEYS series will this month feature the UK premiere of HERO – Inspired by the Extraordinary Life & Times of Mr. Ulric Cross (Frances-Anne Solomon, 2018), a film which uses archive footage and drama to tell the true story of Trinidadian Ulric Cross, who had a distinguished career as a soldier, jurist and diplomat. Completing the line-up for May will be a launch event for the new BFI Blu-ray release of Moving Millions: British Transport Films, marking the 70th anniversary of the documentary film unit British Transport Films, as well as the 100th anniversary of the Department for Transport. Partner festivals returning to BFI Southbank include the Chinese Visual Festival, featuring the UK premiere of First Night Nerves (2018), followed by a Q&A with director Stanley Kwan, as well as premieres of In Character (Dong Xueying, 2018) and Tracey (Jun Li, 2018). We’ll also celebrate the enduring talent of the late director Philip Saville (Boys from the Blackstuff, Afternoon of a Nymph), and welcome broadcasters Mark Kermode and Edith Bowman back for regular their live BFI Southbank events Mark Kermode in 3D at the BFI and Soundtracking with Edith Bowman. BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS: WEIMAR CINEMA 1919-1933 FRI 3 MAY – SPECIAL EVENT: Weimar Launch Night: Jonny Woo presents ‘The Party at the end of the World’ – an evening of film, performance and cabaret, curated and hosted by Jonny Woo TUE 7 MAY, 18:10 – TALK: The Weimar Dream Factory: An Introductory Survey TUE 28 MAY, 18:15 – TALK: Sight & Sound Discussion: The Birth of Criticism BFI Southbank will mark the centenary of the Weimar Republic with a major two-month season running from Wednesday 1 May – Sunday 30 June; BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS: WEIMAR CINEMA 1919-1933 will celebrate a ground-breaking era of German cinema. Part one of the season will showcase the extraordinary diversity of styles and genres in Weimar cinema, which conjured extraordinary visions: from dystopian cities and Alpine adventures to depraved nightclubs. Thanks to brilliant aesthetic and technical innovations, Germany’s film industry was second only to Hollywood, and in its famous brand of ‘haunted screen’ horror, evident in films such as Nosferatu (FW Murnau, 1922), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920), and The Student of Prague (Henrik Galeen, 1926), the darkest recesses of the human psyche found visible form. Yet nightmares were only part of the dreamscape. Part one of this two-month survey also includes surprising gender-bending farces and sparkling musicals such as I Don't Want to Be a Man (Ernst Lubitsch, 1918), Heaven on Earth (Reinhold Schünzel, Alfred Schirokauer, 1927) and A Blonde Dream (Paul Martin, 1932). The season will also include an extended run of Josef von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel (1930), starring Marlene Dietrich in her breakthrough role as Lola Lola, star attraction of The Blue Angel beer hall. Loosely based on a novel by Heinrich Mann, Sternberg’s masterpiece is a dazzling construct of enigmatic lighting, décor and sound, featuring real-life stars of Weimar cabaret and the now classic songs of Friedrich Hollaender. For leftist critics it lacked satirical edge, yet it conjures a transgressive realm that recalls the paintings of George Grosz and Otto Dix. An enduring classic; its subversive vitality is undiminished; The Blue Angel is re-released in selected cinemas on Friday 31 May.